MHS boys fifth, girls sixth at Old Big 8 meet

May 4, 2014

MASON CITY - Backed by two wins in field events, the Marshalltown boys' track and field team finished in fifth place at the Old Big 8 Conference Meet on Friday night.

Brady Arment won the high jump with a leap of 6 feet and Marco Tapia also leaped to a gold medal in the long jump with a best mark of 19-8 3/4.

Marshalltown scored 49 points on the night but trailed fourth place Mason City by 20. Ames (177) won the team title, while Cedar Falls (129) was second and Waterloo West (75) was third. Waterloo East (30) and Fort Dodge (28) were sixth and seventh, respectively.

The Bobcat girls were sixth overall with 32 points. Eight of those came from Rachel Blagg's second-place tally in the 800-meter run as she hit the line in a season-best time of 2 minutes, 22.74 seconds.

Cedar Falls scored 167 points to win the team title by just two over Ames (165). Mason City was third with 72 points, and Waterloo West (68) and Waterloo East (54) rounded out the top five and Fort Dodge was seventh with 27 points.

Most of the other points for the Bobcat boys came from senior distance runner Imad Amenzou, who was second in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:37.37. He trailed Ames' Atem Akok by just 43-hundredths of a second. The 4x800 relay team, which consisted of Amenzou, Konner Kacmarynski, Nate Phillips and Sam Johnson also placed third in a time of 8:30.28.

Michaela Huey claimed the bronze medal in the girls' 3,000 as she hit the line 11:29.29, while Maggie Carnahan also was third in the discus with a personal-best toss of 105-7.

The 4x400 and shuttle hurdle relay squads also came in fourth. The 4x400 relay included Blagg, Jasmine Scott, Leah Barkema and Sabrina Daughtery and that foursome hit the line in 4:20.40, while the shuttle hurdle relay team of Karli McClure, Carrie Heddens, Ali Ashby and Kelbryn Vangundy finished in 1:23.58.

Both Marshalltown squads return to Mason City on Tuesday to take part in the Mason City Invitational at 5 p.m. The Central Iowa Conference Meet is at Waukee on Thursday and field events begin at 3:30 p.m.